Adobe Illustrator Certification Exam Study Guide

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Main Interface Components - Left Side

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Tools Panel: Contains all drawing, selection, and editing tools. Hover over tools to see their name and shortcut. Some tools have hidden options—click and hold to expand the group.

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Main Interface Components - Right Side

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Panels: Examples include Layers, Properties, Color, Appearance, Swatches. Panels can be docked, collapsed, or moved for a custom workspace. Use the Properties panel for quick access to commonly used settings.

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Main Interface Components - Top

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Menu Bar: Houses all commands (e.g., File, Edit, Object, Type, Select, Effect, View, Window, Help). Context-sensitive options based on current selection or active tool.

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Main Interface Components - Center

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Artboard/Workspace: Your main working area where artwork is created. You can have multiple artboards per document (good for multi-page designs).

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Important Menus - Window Menu

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Toggle visibility for any panel (e.g., Window > Layers). Also access workspaces and extensions.

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Important Menus - View Menu

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Control zoom levels, guides, grids, and preview modes. View > Outline: See only paths (useful for editing). View > GPU Preview: High-performance rendering (if supported).

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Document Setup - File > Document Color Mode

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Choose RGB for digital or CMYK for print. Important to set correctly from the beginning to avoid color issues.

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Document Setup - Effect > Document Raster Effects Settings

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Controls the resolution of effects like drop shadows, glows, textures. Use High (300 ppi) for print, Screen (72 ppi) for web.

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Selection Tools - Selection Tool (V)

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Select and move entire objects or groups. Resize using bounding box handles.

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Selection Tools - Direct Selection Tool (A)

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Select and move anchor points or segments of paths. Useful for fine-tuning custom shapes.